2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This GIFTS paper explores the use of a semester-long information literacy (IL) unit to develop a sense of connection to the university, and engineering identity as well as build valuable research and writing skills for students. This unit was developed over multiple years to be implemented in a first-year engineering lecture course and was used in two sections of the course. The results of the IL instruction unit were compared to sections that did not use the instructional materials. Instructors worked with the engineering librarian to develop the unit as well as deliver content. The unit was not only to connect students with their field, but also to meet general education learning outcomes, first-year experience requirements, and to serve as a preliminary indicator for ABET with regards to life-long learning. At the end of the semester, students felt more connected to the University and their field and were more adept in writing and contributing to scholarly work.

The project underwent a few different iterations to land in its current form. In its inception in 2017, the unit culminated with a scholar biography in which the students learned IEEE writing conventions and how to use library resources. This included one session with the engineering librarian to familiarize students with the library resources available to support their research. Instructors felt that this was superficial. To build a stronger relationship with the librarian, 2 additional sessions were added to provide students with more detailed support on research strategies and how better to evaluate resources. In 2019 the assignment was changed again. Students completed very similar assignments in a unit culminating in an annotated bibliography and a literature review based in their field and the 14 Grand Challenges. Outcomes were studied to show that students moved from the functional content uses of IL instruction to more synthesis and a slight social connection [1]. While this provided students a great way to make a connection to their field, the level of synthesis from annotated bibliography to literature review was limited. Students were doing a literature review on a topic instead of connected to a question. During the most current version of the unit, students learn IEEE conventions, how to find and evaluate peer-reviewed articles, and how to complete an annotated bibliography as well as a literature review. Where the project truly connects students to the field and the university is the use of topics. Students write literature reviews based on a professor’s current research in the field.

In its current format students met with the engineering librarian five times and the professor in class completed an additional four sessions independently to prepare students and review materials. Sessions with the engineering librarian began with instruction around library resources, how to complete a search for a peer-reviewed article, and how to evaluate sources. This was followed by an assignment to find, summarize, and evaluate a peer-reviewed article on a topic that interested them and related to their field. In prior years, there was little immediate demonstration of student learning. To make their research more collaborative, students then shared with each other the importance of their article with regards to their field as well as how they have deemed the paper credible and relevant to their topic. The second library session focused on writing conventions and IEEE citation formatting. Students were able to discuss the importance of proper citations as well as how to look up a researcher’s scholarly impact and citation analysis. The discussion on IEEE formatting brought the course to a discussion on abstracts. The instructor helped students to collaboratively write abstracts for papers that have been previously published. This exercise in synthesizing and summarizing prepared students to learn annotated bibliography. The annotated bibliography assignment was a culmination of the skills learned in the previous information literacy instruction sessions. After watching research talks by professors throughout the college, students chose a topic for their literature review. This was followed by two IL sessions with the engineering librarian and instructor focusing on how to complete a literature review and discuss and refine their scholarly work.